Dookki - Houston

I finally paced myself and ate the fried rice at the end!! This time, I had the pleasure to dine with my graduate professor since she was visiting for a conference. We talked and dined at dookki where she explained to me the culture and how it was back in Korea. She then made the fried rice mixture at the end with her Busan sauce (where she is from) and it was delicious!Food here is always great and it seemed like customer service has improved a lot since returning. Upgraded from my last review of 4/5 to 5/5!

Most diehard AYCE fans would scoff at the idea of a carb-laden tteokbokki feast - not us though! We knew going in that Houston's first eatery dedicated to chewy, savory rice cakes would have big shoes to fill, having taken the place of the iconic HK Food Street. To our surprise, we would discover that the true gems of Dookki might have been everything but the tteok - here's our thoughts on what we sampled:Sauce bar: The restaurant helpfully provides some recommended sauce combos for you to customize your brew; one member of our party was spice-averse, but we found success in creating a mild sweet heat with 2 scoops of Dookki original and 1 scoop of gooey Jajang. Feel free to mix and match!Tteok bar: You'll find rice cakes of all colors, shapes, and compositions here! We definitely had to sample each offering but were mindful not to fill up on the bouncy morsels - we enjoyed the purple sweet potato variation the most.Veggies, tofu, and seafood: The veggie selection here is fairly limited, but the mushrooms and cabbage were pleasantly fresh and a welcome reprieve from the otherwise carb-and-protein-heavy choices. Same was true for the tofu, which soak up the tteokbokki sauce wonderfully but come only in 1-2 varieties. The surprise winner was the plate of whole shrimps, which not only satisfied my quest for value but also flavored our soup with a subtle savoriness. Yum!Fried food station: We all raved about the spicy soy chicken, fried beautifully and doused in a dilution of the aforementioned Jajang sauce. Who knew the fried chicken would be the best thing at a tteokbokki / hot pot joint?? The remainder of the items, such as veggie fritters, mandu, and seaweed rolls, provided additional fodder for dipping into our cooking sauce, though again - everything in moderation!Grilled food station and odeng bar: If you're impatient or just plain hungry, the prepared hot foods are quite decent, if mostly unremarkable - shout-out to the odeng bar with the insanely long skewers for being the most dangerous yet addictive food station! Cleanse your palate with a sip of odeng broth between bites of fish cake and tteokbokki.Self-serve ramen machine: Yes, you could just get the dry noodles to put into your own table pot, but wouldn't you rather have the experience of cooking the noodles on the automatic machine?? We tried this once as a table for the novelty of it, though surely you wouldn't come to Dookki just to eat Shin Ramyun ;)Fried rice: Despite being 95% stuffed at this point, we couldn't leave without passing through the second phase of the meal. Our delightful waitress helped us scoop out some of the extra cooking liquid, gathered the fried rice ingredients, then proceeded to cook it teppanyaki-style at our table. (Dinner and a show!) The rice soaks up all the delicious juices and is a satisfying, if heavy, end to the meal.About half of the restaurant was full when we went on Saturday night, so you won't have any issues scoring a table or getting service. At $23 per person it's a little cheaper than other AYCE spots in Chinatown, albeit with mostly "filler" foods - but at the end of the day, I had a great time! I'm excited to take my Korean-food-loving friends here and see how many rice cakes I can stuff them with ;)

This is an AYCE place revolving around rice cake so if you are a fan of rice cake like me this place is for you. There are a decent variety of things to choose from to add to your pot and a ramen bar for you as well. I especially loved the fish cake on the skewer. Overall, the food was very good. There is a station for sauces as well to make the flavoring you desire but don't fret if you are unsure what you want as they have recommended sauces and the recipes to make it. I would recommend sitting with people who have similar spice tolerances as you though because it will only be one sauce per pot. My friends and I were too full before we could make it to the fried rice portion but I've heard good things about it and will have to come back to try it out. The service however was very disappointing. We walked in and were not greeted by the staff even though someone was at the front desk. The staff did not seem like they wanted to be there and were very inattentive to us even though it was slow. We were able to get seated quickly but we did go when it wasn't peak eating hours. There is a lot of seating available and a nice interior though with K-Pop playing.

We'd heard about this location from several local news outlets, and my wife has been into trying Korean places since getting into K-Drama, so we decided to check this place out for lunch.The place was mostly empty and the service was spectacular. The waitress walked us through the process of mixing the fish cake broth with various sauces to make a customized broth, and where to get the items to mix. She even helped us along.Following a couple of rounds of the hot pot, she came around with the items to turn the broth into Korean Fried Rice, which was well worth the experience.Some of our favorite items had nothing to do with the broth at all. The gimbap, beef bulgogi, and grilled pork were all excellent by themselves, as were the fried chicken and fried seaweed rolls.We didn't have enough space in our stomachs to try the Ramen bar, but it didn't seem like a very popular option given all of the other alternatives available.We did make an effort to grab ice cream at the end, which was self-serve in a cooler in the back. That might have been the only downside, as it felt like more of an afterthought than a feature.Overall, I highly recommend this for a different lunch or dinner experience. It's truly all you can eat for 90 min, but can be eaten in courses that create variety and don't feel like a standard buffet.

If you like tteokbokki, this is your type of place. Come hungry b/c those rice cakes can be filling. The rice cakes are really cute here- hearts, flowers, and regular shaped. They pour a broth in a pot and you can choose your sauce. You only get 1 sauce change. There are several stations. You take your big bowl and gather whatever you want to add to your hotpot. There are plates and bowls available for cooked meats, kimbap, japchae, fried dumplings, fried chicken, etc. You can make your own bibimbap bowl or ramen. You're supposed to end your meal with fried rice made from the leftover sauce. Plus, you can choose from 4 flavors of ice cream and top it with sprinkles.Overall, I thought the service was good. The tteokbokki was fun to eat, but I felt like I barely ate any rice cakes and put way too many fish cakes, etc. The cooked stuff would have been better if it wasn't sitting out under a heated lamp, but they put just enough out and refilled when necessary. It was kept tidy. I think there was a variety of items that kids can eat, which is a plus b/c korean food can get spicy. I happened to visit when they had a promotion, so got 22% off plus a free drink coupon via raffle. Now, I have a coupon to go back within a couple months.

I've been here twice now and really love the concept! I would give it a 3.5 star if possible. The service both times I went was not the best but I enjoy the food and experience and would go again. I really love tteobokki and I like the customizable experience. They have a large setup with various rice cakes and toppings to choose from including vegetables, noodles, seafood, and sausages. There are also several readymade foods and sides to eat as well. I enjoy dipping the fried mandu in the tteobokki sauce. I would skip adding the cheese on the side. It does not taste good and burns up in 5-10 mins on the hot plate. The first time I went was later at night around 9:30. The restaurant says it's open until 11 and there were still many tables when I went however they started mopping one half of the restaurant around 10:20 and I couldn't keep eating from the chemical fumes. The other issue is that the servers are meant to help you setup the tteobokki pot and the second time I went, they did not put enough broth initially which made some of our food stick and burn a bit at the bottom. Hopefully they can work out these kinks but again, I really love the concept! It's def a carb loaded meal for those that might not want that.

Love the name since it reminds me of ... you know. Luckily, the food and flavors here are far from that. With a unique spin on tteokbokki and all you can eat, you really can't go wrong. However there are a few short comings with Dookki.This place has a super nice facility. Filled with minimalistic, up to date furnishings, the place is comfy and inviting. While normally you would know what to do at an AYCE, there seems to be an orientation by the server that they MUST share and instead of a menu on your table, there is a 'Dookki User Guide'. Hmmm did I sign up for a class or something??? After about ten minutes of learning and absorbing all the info, we took the correct steps to start the tteobokki cooking of the pot. Be sure to use the correct apparatus for sauce, sides, rice or other foods because they watch you like a hawk.Food has limited selections and choices. It's mostly divided up into pot ready, ready to eat, cold sides, rice bowl toppings and sides. Which to me means you don't really do one thing particularly well. However most of the foods turned out pretty delicious and I zoned in on their fried chicken. For their pricing of $20-25 it really wasn't bad. They have a ramen station but personally I wouldn't waste stomach space on packaged ramen if this is a AYCE. I wish there were more stuff to throw into the hotpot and the orientation and study guide is annoying af.

Never tried this concept before. It's like hot pot, except instead of meat, you have rice cakes. I feel like you have to really really love dukkbokki to love this place. I normally do really love dukkbokki but normally as a side dish and not as the star of the meal. The rice cakes were very nice and chewy, but the buffet doesn't have as many other food options as hot pot places have. The ready to eat food had some good stuff, like the japchae and bulgogi, but some misses too. The fried rice they make at the end with the leftover sauce was pretty good. There's also an ice cream station and, for some weird reason, a self-serve ramen station. Service was good enough for a buffet style place. Our server made the fried rice for us. Inside of the restaurant is clean and modern. Glad we tried this but not sure we'll be back.

My tummy hurts but in the best way possible. The girls at the front are so sweet and explained how everything worked, even adding their own recommendations. They were very attentive and checked up on us and our hotpot multiple times. The food is great, and I feel full but it was so worth it. The side dishes are nice to pick at while you wait for the food to heat up. Would definitely come back when I'm in the area again!!

Came for dinner and was surprised at the selection given. It's classic Korean street food items such as fried chicken, kimbap, etc. solid food even if not amazing! Service was alright and ambiance was casual. It is definitely very carb forward such I anticipated (and loved). Dinner was ~50$ for 2 adults!